mysteries
- 1Plural of mystery.
Good detective novels layer several mysteries before resolving them in the final chapter.
The deep ocean still holds countless mysteries for marine biologists.
Note
A regular plural: the final -y after a consonant becomes -ies, as in stories and histories. Only the countable uses of mystery take it: puzzles, unexplained things, puzzling people, detective novels, mystery plays. Mystery as a quality, as in an air of mystery, stays singular. Keep it apart from the ancient secret cults, a use that exists only in the plural.
- 2Secret societies or cults, especially the religious groups of the ancient Greek and Roman world.
The Greek mysteries drew worshippers who sought hidden knowledge about life after death.
Initiates of the mysteries swore never to reveal the ceremonies they had witnessed.
Note
Historians of Greek and Roman religion use the word for initiation cults such as the Eleusinian and Orphic, whose sacred knowledge and rites were disclosed only to sworn members. Here the word is always plural: one speaks of the Eleusinian mysteries, never of a mystery for a single cult.
mysteries is a form of mystery
mystery, noun: Someone or something that is secret, unknown, or impossible to explain or understand. Full entry
- Forms
- mysterymysteries plural
- Spelling
- mystery → mysteries: change y to i, add -es
Use it in a sentence
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